Special K wanted to give this place a visit with me. I haven’t heard much about it, so why not give it a ago. So off we went with our friends – here we go!

General crowd shot 12AM

Gossip @ The Gypsy Lounge Nightclub (Havana / OneSixNine)Note: Gypsy nightclub was formerly known late last year as gay club OneSixNine, while before that it was known as the straight club ‘Havana Club de Luxe’, where Fridays was a regular Asian RnB night. The promoters for tonight are different from the previous RnB promoters. Assessment Time: 12:00AM – 01:45AM Opening Hours: 10:30AM – 02:00AM Lockout: None Address: 169 Oxford St Venue Website: Unkown Promoter Website:http://www.xclusivproductionz.comhttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Xclusiv-Productionz/24109750459 Occurrence: Every Friday since late last year. Outside Line: None Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual was okay tonight. Some guys wore t-shirts, some wore collared shirts. Girls wore their typical dresses and stuff. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: Oh I wish I remembered how much I paid tonight, but I didn’t keep a mental note. Silly me. It certainly wasn’t $25. Either $20 or $15. Guestlist: At time of writing, the official contact is bee (at) xclusivproductionz.com Inside: Layout hasn’t changed at all since last year under the Havana name – You walk upstairs to the second level of this building, where you are in the back of the club – on your left are bathrooms, the close right has the back bar with 2 tables in front. Far back right corner is the VIP room, with its own bar to hold a small party of 40-50 people. On the front left is a sofa area split into 4, with its own bar, and likewise for the front right. The dancefloor is at the middle front, with floorspace to hold 200 or so people. Cloak Room: I didn’t check, but the small corner where they typically had cloak room services was closed. Bar Prices / Line: No lines at the bars, you were getting service right away.. A Smirnoff double black costs $13. DJs: UnknownMusic Style: Primarily American RnB tonight Crowd & Ratio: Our group were all mid 20’s and above. The rest of the crowd were under 25. It was approximately 50%-60% Asian with the rest being European with a trickle of Pacific Islander. Considering there were about 20-30 of us in total, it is not a very good representation of what this place would be like if it were to reach capacity. Entertainment: None. Tickets were offered to Good Vibrations Festival on the promotional poster, but these never materialised into any sort of competition in the club while I was there. I might have missed out by coming late. Atmosphere: Depressingly dead. Everything was set – bars, DJ, lights, even a photographer, but there was a distinct lack of humanly bodies. We were hoping it would pick up later at around midnight to 1AM, but it only marginally increased in population Video Montage:

A request from a reader to review this event since it has moved from the now closed Havana nightclub and now operating under a new promoter (Havana closed and opened again as the gay club one six nine). It’s been a few weeks now since opening night, so I suppose it was time to see what it was like – here we go!

Peak Crowd - Chocolate City @ Mansions Nightclub - 12:15AM

Chocolate City @ Mansions NightclubAssessment Time: 11:15PM – 03:00AM Opening Hours: 09::45/10:00PM (?) – 03:00AMLockout: Appears that there was no lockout Address: 14 Oxford Square, (Oxford St) (Confusing I know), Darlinghurst Sydney. It’s right next to The Gaff, opposite Stonewall. It’s basically an expanded/extended smoking area of The Gaff, but for tonight is closed off on its own to hold its own venue. An interesting and in depth dissection of this arrangement can be read hereVenue Website: There is no official website yet at time of writing, but you can check out http://www.thegaff.com.au for a little bit of info Promoter Website: Website is not operational at time of writing, but it would be at www.visionshock.com.au . There are facebook pages however.Occurrence: Every Friday Night.Dress Code / Door Policy: Dress code for men is acollared shirt and clean sneakers/shoes. Girls – anything goes. Everyone here pretty much stuck to this attire, except in the latter half of the night when patrons from The Gaff next door came in – the guys mostly wore t-shirts. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $15 on guestlist, $20 otherwise. Guestlist: Send guestlists to jeanie@visionshock.com.au . I am not sure what time the guestlists close but it is assumed to be 12AM. Birthday packages are available. Passouts: No passouts until 12AM. Inside: Walk inside right into the wooden lower floor dance area to hold 30 or 40 people. Some stools and tables dot the area. Not sure why it was setup like this – perhaps to keep people seated here and to give the floor more of a person presence? The tables kind of makes it a bit more cramped to dance though. On the top right is a small DJ area overlooking the floor. On the left is the upper area of the club – Various lounges and sofas and an elevated VIP area. There is also a bar at the far end. In the middle of the upper area is a free standing area where you can dance as well. The decorum of the area has a kind of classy vibe. Cloak Room: No cloak room services. We just left our stuff in my VIP area. Bar Prices / Line: $16 for a glass of red wine and vodka lemonade. Average there would be one or two people in front of you ordering. DJs: Unknown. Music Style: Primarily RnB the entire night. There may have been one or two songs repeated. In the later half of the night some rnb songs I didn’t know were being played and it kind of confused me. Some house mashup. Notably there was no hip hop played. Crowd: In the first half of the night it was pretty much an Asian crowd. Safe to assume it was all local Asians. In the later stages of the night, it appeared that patrons from The Gaff next door were kicked out and moved to The Mansion Nightclub. These patrons were all Caucasian, probably local as well. Age of the crowd was young – ranging from teenagers to people in their low 20’s. Entertainment: Free assorted ‘fun sized’ chocolates upon entry. Nom nom nom. There were also CD giveaways for one of the DJs tonight. Atmosphere: The entire club is of a dark setting with minimal lighting. On the dancefloor, disco balls overhead reflect a blue light all over the area. When you look around, dots of blue are scattered and rotating around the walls. On the upper lounge areas, there are no such disco lights or distractions, and the general vibe is relaxed and classy. The crowd is underwhelming throughout the night. On the dancefloor there was a period to which it was packed, at the cost of the rest of the club being empty. Meh. Video: 360 of the dancefloor

Video: Walkthrough. Main dancefloor, upper are of bar and lounges, a brief peek into the smoking area and then back to the dancefloor.

Good Friday is on tomorrow and all the clubs in Sydney are closed that day, so they are open Thursday night in lieu… Just left Space with Daz, to meet up with M and some other female friends, so here we go!

Candy Dreams Lingerie Party @ Havana Club de Luxe

Assessment Time: Midnight – 02:30am Opening Hours: 10:30pm – 03:00am Website:http://www.havanaclub.com.au, http://www.teamhkr.com Address: 169 oxford st, Darlinghurst Sydney Dress Code / Door Policy: Casual ok. I had dress shoes, a vest and collared shirt on. Others wore t-shirts and some girls wore corsets tonight. Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist before midnight. I employed use of my free pass from the last week I visited Havana. Guestlist: See promoter website Inside: Walk upstairs two flights of stairs to the top level of the building, where Havana is. Main dancefloor for 250 or so people, with 3 bars on 3 sides, and DJ on the 4th wall. Lounges and carpeted areas surround the dancefloor.Cloak Room:$4 Bar: Didn’t drink tonight Music: RnB with the occasional House mashup Crowd: Mostly asian with a mix of the others such as euro, aussie. Mostly local. Entertainment: Podiums in the middle in front of the DJ and next to him. Dancing poles are not installed tonight. Atmosphere: It was a Thursday, so it wasn’t as packed as a typical Friday night, nethertheless it was still busy enough to keep it away from the status of ‘dead’. Later around 2am it did die down considerably.Video – 360 View of the main floor around midnight

Just left Brooklyn Hotel for the Friday clubbing night to join M and Co at Havana, so here we go!

Candy Dreams @ Havana

Assessment Time: 01:15 – 4:00am

Opening Hours: approx 10pm – 4:00am

Website: http://www.havanaclub.com.au

Address: 169 Oxford St, Sydney

Dress Code / Door Policy: At time of arrival at 1:15am, there was no line, heaps of people downstairs on the street smoking. I was let right in. I wear a vest, nice jeans, shoes and collared shirt. People inside are wearing t-shirts so I assume neat casual is ok here. There are also other people inside with hats on.

Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25 after midnight. It seems to be the standard now. Hurts every time. Standard discount rates apply before midnight only if you are on the guestlist.

Guestlist:

Inside: Walk upstairs two flights of stairs to the top level of the building, where Havana is. Main dancefloor for 250 or so people, with 3 bars on 3 sides, and DJ on the 4th wall. Lounges and carpeted areas surround the dancefloor.

Cloak Room: Did not utilize cloak room tonight, but it’s only been a month since I last went, and it was $4 last itme.

Bar: Didn’t drink tonight.

Music: Modern RNB with house mashups. Later in the night (after 2.30am) the hip hop comes out.

Crowd: Dominantly asian, with a handful of pacific islanders, caucasians.

Entertainment: 2 podiums for the crowd at the front. Noticably tonight the dancing poles have been removed. WHY! Whatever happened to letting girls play out their life long dreams in a dark nightclub?

Atmosphere: On entry people are beginning to move out, but there are still enough to keep the party vibe going. It’s also darker in here, as opposed to Brooklyn Hotel where I was earlier tonight. I prefer the darker clubs, its safer to ogle people of the opposite sex and not get caught 😉

Read on about your favourite clubber James Tran being recognized at the club!

Assessment Time: 22:45- 1:30amWebsite: http://www.havanaclub.com.auAddress: 169 Oxford St, Darlinghurst, SydneyDress Code: Casual OK. Hats OK.Entry Fee / Cover Charge: $25. $20 on guestlist (?)Guestlist: see website. No problems getting inInside: One central dance floor, three bars. Private room in the corner, and lounges everywhere.Cloak Room: YesMusic: ‘Scouse’ House and Trance. It was actually pretty good tonight, as the DJ has a big group of songs to choose from. Of course, he chose some of the popular house songs as well as mixing it up with a bit of progressive trance. It was pretty good i would say.Crowd: Dominantly Euro, some Aussies.Entertainment: Dancers on the podiums. No MC’s tonight, but dancing chicks are good enough for me.Atmosphere: Good vibe. Not as packed as the Chocolate City RNB nights, but still busy nonetheless. A good vibe in general.Video: 360 View from the dancefloor